Lambert's Equal Area Azimuthal Projection remedies these limitations. This projection, devised in 1772, has long been known to cartographers. However, it has been seldom used as the basis of world maps given tradition-bound conventional cartography. Yet Lambert's amazing projection is capable of providing an excellent overall view of the world for any country or region selected to be at the center of the map. No longer is the world chopped up arbitrarily leaving the map user figuratively falling off the edge of the world at a split ocean, or doing the same thing in the Arctic or Antarctic. On a Lambert map the world unfolds around the country whose global situation and global relationships are the focus of attention. It shows exactly where other countries (near and far) are situated relative to this country and provides an accurate indication of the shortest travel routes to other places on earth. The circumference of the map marks the far boundary of the world for the inhabitants of the selected country and signifies the furthest point (the antipode), to which they can travel from the exact chosen center of their country.